Valencia – Ciutat Vella – El Mercat – La Lonja

Just over the road from Mercado Central is another favourite building of mine. La Lonja, or in Valenciano La Llotja de la Seda, (the Silk Exchange market) was built in 1482 and is a UNESCO world heritage building. Click on the photos to get a better view.

I love the gargoyles and chimeras that run in arched columns around the doorways and adorn the window lintels. Some of them are quite cheeky!

In the main hall, with it’s forest of twisted columns, is the entrance to the tower. Debtors were kept here as punishment and which must have been purgatory during the hot Valencian summers.